Many of these came from her ‘Songbook’ series, a collection of 8 albums released between 1956 & 1964 which saw her team up with songwriting greats of the day. Legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald was one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century, providing many of the definitive versions of classic jazz songs. Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook Look out for links to more in-depth reviews of some of these albums which we commissioned international jazz journalists to write. So, as a result, here’s our updated selection of 50 essential – or dare we say it – best jazz albums ever, from some of the greatest musicians of all time. We started out with the goal of highlighting the 10 best albums of all time, but there were just too many amazing records missing. Music that has stood the test of time, influencing other musicians and receiving critical acclaim over the years. There are, though, a core collection of releases that have come to be seen as essential jazz records: ones that every jazz fan knows – or should know.

With so many thousands of amazing records in the history of jazz, maybe a definitive list of ‘best albums’ is not feasible.

If you ask any serious jazz fan or musician to tell you what the best jazz albums of all time are, you’ll probably receive either a very short answer (“impossible!”) or a long one, which is subject to change depending on the day of the week

The sound the 1975 album cover